I feel very unsafe in my community because we have lot of gangsters and they like to insult people, so that they can get their money and hurt them. They take the money and buy drugs and give it to schoolboys, so that they can sell those drugs to other learners and smoke it. I don’t think these boys get a share of the profits.

The gangsters rob everyone in the community. At 4:30pm in June as I was coming home from school I decided to call my mother to come and fetch me because it was dark outside. I was near the shop and turned my phone off after speaking to her. I hid my phone between my books in my schoolbag, so that if something happened, my phone would be safe.

When I was walking down the street I heard someone whistle, which made me feel afraid, so I took my phone out and called my mother again. While I was speaking to my mother I felt someone taking my schoolbag. I angrily shouted at him and said, “What do you think you are doing?”

He slapped me and said, “Who are you to talk to me like that!” and continued to try and take my bag. I was trying to fight back, but then he stabbed me on my right cheek. I let go of my bag and he grabbed my phone, dropped my books on the street and ran.

I took my books and wrapped them in plastic. My cheek was bleeding and I was crying. I saw my mother, who started to run towards me when she noticed something was wrong. We got into a taxi, so that we could go to the police station.

At the police station my mother phoned my father to tell him what happened. My father was very angry and came to the police station. When he arrived I was in the toilet washing my face. I told my father who did this to me. My mother called my uncles to come to the police station. They hired a car and tried to look for the person who did this. While my father and uncles were looking for the person, my mother and I gave a statement to the police so that they can try to find the gangster.

My mother got the car and we went home. When we got home the police phoned and said that they had found the person, but that I needed to come and confirm whether it was him or not. They sent us a picture of the man and luckily it was him and he was arrested.